Update following Judicial Review 23/24 May challenging ACOs

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‘The hearing is over – now we wait’

There was great support for the JR4NHS team outside the Courts on both days and also in Court 76 where the drama unfolded (see below for Twitter links if you wish to catch up with what went on at the time.) KONP was there nationally and with supporters from Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham, Lambeth, Lewisham, Plymouth, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest amongst others. The four complainants were there – Dr Colin Hutchinson, Professor Allyson Pollock, Professor Sue Richards and Dr Graham Winyard – and they were joined in support by Fay Dowker, Professor of Theoretical Physics and student and friend of the late Professoer Stephen Hawking.

A short interview with Allyson Pollock summarises the mood of the JR4NHS team at end of the JR:

#JR4NHS Message from the Royal Courts from @AllysonPollock at end of this historic and important challenge to Govt on its policy to breakup the NHS forever through ACOs pic.twitter.com/luIZ4fpSIa

— TonyOSullivan (@DrTonyOSullivan) May 24, 2018

From the JR4NHS team:

A quick update to say that the hearing of the judicial review finished this afternoon. After hearing our argument that the ACO policy is unlawful – and NHS England’s and the Secretary of State’s arguments that there’s no policy outside the proposed contract which is just another contract, that there’s no duty of transparency in these circumstances, and that the judicial review challenge is both too early and too late – Mr Justice Green reserved judgment.

There is likely to be at least a 4-6 week wait before Mr Justice Green gives his judgement on this JR (judicial review).

Win or lose, the JR challenge has had a huge impact, extracting significant concessions from Hunt and the Government, forcing Jeremy Hunt to agree to a public consultation on the ACO contract and to agree to delay any secondary regulations until after the consultation, with a postponement of all ACOs until this process is completed. The consultation is likely to await the outcome of the JR. Jeremy Hunt originally planned, once he had been forced to agree to any consultation, to launch it in February. Whatever the outcome on the legality of ACOs and the contract, the important issues have been aired publicly and we await what Mr Justice Green has to say in the detailed response he has promised.